PPL distributes record performance rights royalties

PPL, the UK-based music licensing company, has distributed £114 million (€144m) in its annual June payment for the calendar year 2013 – a nine per cent increase on last year and the largest amount the largest amount the company has paid out in its 80-year history.

Peter Leathem, PPL's CEO, comments: “Our aim is to do whatever we can to maximise the royalties that we are able to collect and distribute to our members. I am delighted that PPL is now paying more royalties to more members on more recordings than ever before in PPL’s history, as this is part of a strategic plan we developed several years ago.

"Also, this comes at a time when performance rights continue to become an increasingly significant revenue stream for our members and the recorded music industry in general.”

The company, which works on behalf of over 90,000 record companies and performers to license recorded music played in public (at pubs, nightclubs, restaurants, shops and offices) and broadcast (TV, radio and online), will be making payments against almost half a million tracks to approximately 3,000 recording rightsholders and 22,000 performer members.

"Over the years, PPL has continued to invest in new IT systems and technology to help make music licensing much more comprehensive and accurate," says a statement from the company, "maximising royalty payments and increasing pay-through rates to members."

US/UK: The MPG has welcomed a new legislative development in the US, writes David Davies. The US House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property has passed H.R. 4789, The Performance Rights Act, which aims to create fair performance rights on US terrestrial radio for all music creators. According to Music Producers Guild board member Mick Glossop (pictured), the move could ultimately herald considerable benefits for UK performers and producers.

Not all television production crews today include a sound recordist but, as extreme location cameraman and director Phil Coates tells Kevin Hilton, that does not mean audio is any less important in the making of exciting and stimulating programmes.